Anowa

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1987

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Summary

Play Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Priestesses

A common lament throughout Anowa is that Anowa should have been a priestess. A priestess is described as a woman who is unattached to anything except her God. She is not expected to have children or obey a husband, and her allegiance to the laws of the Gods takes precedence over her civic and cultural duties. However, priestesses are also viewed as wild, unmanageable, witch-like, and as having too much in common with the Gods’ unsavory qualities. But the role of priestess in the play is a symbol of both freedom and a lack of man-made expectations. Because Anowa never became a priestess, the calling is also a motif for personal regret and the need to follow one’s instincts.

African Funeral Marches

Near the end of Anowa, whenever Kofi looks at his limbs, funeral marches play in the background. A funeral dirge is always ominous, but in the play, the timing is significant. The music plays at the moment that the audience becomes aware that Kofi is unhappy with the sexual function of his body. Anowa accuses him of being like a woman, signifying that his body does not work in the way that a man’s body is supposed to. Because he cannot pass on his genes to offspring, Kofi is presented as a dying man, or even one who is already dead. He lacks the vitality connected to masculine identity, and this lack is underscored with the music of a funeral.

Africa

Anowa is a representation of Africa itself. During her dream in which she sees the lobsters pouring out of her own massive body, the lobsters signify the white slave traders who overran the continent and destroyed so many lives. As a whole, Africa has experienced relatively few periods of peace and stability. The trajectory of its life can be mapped onto that of Anowa’s. Every revolution begins with a person or a group deciding that it knows what it wants. After a revolution is complete—in Anowa’s case, her defiant union with Kofi—the new situation inevitably shows itself to be flawed in unexpected ways. This can result in an opportunity for growth, or for new destruction. Africa is an immense continent whose countries contain a multitude of identities. Multiculturalism can be a boon when people share the same goals, but it can also fracture a country’s sense of self, just as a mind that wanders in too many directions at once can become unmoored.